adrienne Posted January 12, 2003 Share Posted January 12, 2003 [color=darkblue][/color]Hi there. Wanted to know if anyone knows of any recipees for dog food. I've searched and all I've found is recipees for treats, cookies etc. Can anyone help?! I've heard such terrible things about the ingredients that are in kibble. It really scared me into wanting to cook for them. Hope you can hep us!! :eggface: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicat613 Posted January 12, 2003 Share Posted January 12, 2003 Dr Pitcairn's book is really helpful. The new edition focuses on raw, but he also says you can cook it if you are more comfortable. Have you done any research on raw feeding? There are a lot of books out there! Do you want to do raw or cooked? If raw, BARF style (feeding bones) or not? You could also look for a holistic vet who is also a nutritionist so they can help you make sure you are providing well for your dog. The most important thing is to make sure you give a pretty good variety, know what foods not to feed (onions, macadamia nuts, etc) and make sure you are meeting their dietary needs. A good home diet can be great but a poorly researched one can be very bad! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DogPaddle Posted January 13, 2003 Share Posted January 13, 2003 BARF is a great plan but you should definately get a good book or guide. I would also suggest you feed a little high quality kibble once or twice a week. If you take you dogs on a trip or if you have to kennel them or have someone else come to your place to watch them it is convenient to have a dog that will not look at you like your crazy if you try to feed it kibble. Wellness has excellent ingredients and is apparently human grade food and is expensive, Wysong is also good but its [b]really[/b] expensive (at least here it is), Solid Gold is nearly as good as the other two and is slightly less expensive. You may have to go to a specialty store to get the food. I have not found any of them in Petsmart or similar stores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsefeathers! Posted January 13, 2003 Share Posted January 13, 2003 I prefer a COOKED natural diet as opposed to a RAW one (same benefits, less danger IMO), but do feed Wellness and supplement with cooked foods. If I ever have less than a Noah's Ark full of dogs, I would feed them probably exclusively on a cooked natural diet (really doesn't seem more expensive... just way more time consuming for a LOT of dogs). If you are interested in raw, newfiemom is a great source of information and resources, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicat613 Posted January 13, 2003 Share Posted January 13, 2003 Billinghurst (the BARF man) says do NOT feed kibble and BARF. Kibble is meant to sit in the stomach/digestive system and BARF is not (other way around??) and having them in there together is bad apparently. I have been feeding a cooked diet based on the Pitcairn method for..wow..10 years? Shoot...I'm not that old LOL! It is not expensive at all. I pay less than I would for kibble. I buy meat at an average of $1 a pound, stretch that by making broth out of the bones which I use to make rice or barley and top food, the rest I balance different carbs and veggies and other stuff. It is very helpful to have a vet experienced in this and I am lucky to have found not just a holistic vet and nutritionist, but one who actually studied under Dr. Pitcairn who I have been following for years! Whatever you do, do your research and find some good support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DogPaddle Posted January 13, 2003 Share Posted January 13, 2003 Alicat - I had not heard that about BARF and kibble. Thanks for the correction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicat613 Posted January 13, 2003 Share Posted January 13, 2003 Not meant to be a correction. :D I don't know enough to say I agree or don't. Just information! When you get involved in home feeding there are a lot of contradicting views. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stiff Posted January 13, 2003 Share Posted January 13, 2003 just Barf it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aroura Posted January 14, 2003 Share Posted January 14, 2003 So what exactly are the differences between Billinghursts and Pitcairns methods? I go by Billinghurst myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicat613 Posted January 14, 2003 Share Posted January 14, 2003 Dr. Pitcairn is a holistic vet, his books have both dietary info and medical info. His first book focused on a cooked home made diet. He came out with a new one recently where he has changed to a raw diet, but it does not include raw meaty bones like BARF (Billinghurst). Instead it is raw meat with human grade bone meal as the calcium/bone component. He also states if you feel better doing so, then cook it. He has more specific diets for different animals (pregnant, aging, etc), although I find that you don't need to use his recipes just follow the overall gist if you have the support and other resources. Dr. Billinghurst, well I don't know as much about his background. I've been a long-time Pitcairn fan. :) But the BARF diet involves feeding whole animal parts in accordance with "going back to basics". So you feed chicken necks, wings, backs, etc along with veggies, and I believe grains or other carbs in BARF. I know some of the raw advocates do grains/carbs (Pitcairn for sure) and some do not (Kymythy Schulze believes in no carbs, no grains, no yeasts etc). Then someone else recently mentioned the Volhard diet, one I am not familiar with so maybe that person will jump in here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicat613 Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 Hey! I'm kind of doing a Volhard diet and didn't even know it LOL. I do soaked oatmeal for breakfast, no meat. I'm gonna go look for some Volhard diet books on Amazon. I've found that no matter which diet you choose, all of the books have something to offer knowledge-wise. I've even found a lot of great info in diabetic books and other human health resources. You can never have too many books or too much info!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 OK, question for you Newfie.... How does Emmit (is it Emmit or Jasper that's on the diet?) tolerate fasting while the other three get to eat? Is it hard for him? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 Great idea! Is it hard for him to go with out food for a day? Does he beg when YOU eat? Mine would be ALL OVER ME! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 That's great! Not mine.... :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted January 15, 2003 Share Posted January 15, 2003 So, you get a break in the summer, and then save that money up for the winter! Just like your gas bill! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrienne Posted January 17, 2003 Author Share Posted January 17, 2003 [color=darkblue][/color] Hi there! WOW! Thanks for all the great info. :angel: Everyone says for me to do research, but as I said I don't know where to go. Can anyone suggest any good sites, books or authors? Thanks again!! :wink: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicat613 Posted January 17, 2003 Share Posted January 17, 2003 I also love the Pitcairn book. I read it all the time! I don't actually follow the recipes though. They're too involved for me! I go by guidelines set by my vet, who studied under Dr. Pitcairn. How lucky am I? I have followed Pitcairn for many years and recently found this vet who I just love. I provide a varied diet of approx. 30% each veg, grains, and protein, with supplements of digestive enzymes, oils, vitamin C, bone meal in proportion to meat, and larch extract for immune health. For grains I use potatoes, sweet potatoes, oats, barley and varied rices. You'll find that some are easier to digest while others offer more fiber, so I tend to mix the two, i.e. always adding some brown rice to sweet potato. There are a lot of other grains to use but I have had trouble finding good sources in my area. I'd love to find some millet and some whole amaranth, maybe some bulgar. I switch between beef, turkey and chicken, usually doing one poultry meal and one beef a day. The poultries are good protein but not much fat and my pup is thin. On the weekends I make a veggie mix in the food processer including parsley which is good for digestion and odors and fresh garlic in reasonable amounts for overall health and circulation. The food processor reduces the vegetables more like they would be in a prey animal's stomach. I freeze all but one or two days worth. I even add it to my own foods! It's a great way to get your veggies too! For other resources, I enjoyed the Kymythy Schulze book a lot. While I may not agree with her on everything, I found the book to be really easy to read and very logically explained why this sort of feeding is better. Amazon.com is awesome. When you look up books, it will offer you similar choices so that is a nice way to find related books, and they usually have reviews. I also like to head on over to our used book shop and browse. You'd be surprised how many books there are on natural feeding for pets. Online, using google you should be able to find a ton of BARF and other raw sites, as well as sites on cooking for your dog. Whichever method you choose, I find that all the other methods have great information as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggrolyn1223 Posted January 20, 2003 Share Posted January 20, 2003 Has anyone ever tried the commercial frozen BARF diets? [url]http://www.nudimensionsnutrition.com/[/url] [url]http://home.attbi.com/~mstraus/dogfeeding.html[/url] Go to the bottom for the topic titled Frozen Raw Food.There are links there. If we did BARF, I would probably try this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alicat613 Posted January 20, 2003 Share Posted January 20, 2003 All that I have seen have been pretty pricey. You pay for the convenience. I could only see doing those for a trip or other unusual circumstances, not regularly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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